Artists do many things to keep their studios going. Such endeavors are often different from our “real” art. The funny thing is how the side projects turn into a bit of fun, serving as a release from the serious work. When you’re lucky those side projects inform the primary studio work.

So my studio diversion is the StickyPhilosopher.com project. There’s even a character who creates the peculiar bumper stickers that he promotes as note cards. I’d rather be working with words and promoting the importance of writing notes than working at a car wash to make money for buying art materials. Way better…

When you go to StickyPhilosoper.com you’ll see a character named Sticky Philosopher who has strange tastes in fashion. If he did have a company car it might look like the big wheeled one pictured below.

Of course, StickyPhilosopher.com is also my “get rich slowly” website. Just imagine the pent-up demand for bumper stickers made by a perpetually emerging artist. The website would make my parents worry about me. I suppose my wife could be a little concerned. And my adult children…well they’re confounded by my emboldened strange sense of humor.

Be well. Please consider ordering a bumper sticker / note card from the site. And please tell your friends about the site. Your good words do wonders for highlighting obscure websites like mine. Thanks in advance!

It is amusing to read about concerns for the loss of privacy many express through various social media platforms. We pretend we have a private world, or at least there was such a world before various online communication options began.

Privacy before the digital age was due to not being able to spill our guts into the digital world. Personal communication choices were mainly writing letters and using telephones. Long distance calls were expensive so these phone chats were limited. The use of television and radio was and remains too costly for most to use as a personal communication platform.

But once the Internet arrived the chance to say whatever we want, when we want and often without giving much thought of what we revealed compromised our “private” lives. We type away many details of our private lives without making big data banks work to collect it.

We are allowing the private art of letter writing to go away. For holidays, birthdays and even the loss of loved ones, we often send and receive text messages and email notes. We communicate with ease and speed but leave much behind. The point is to try to communicate non-digitally from time to time. Pick up a pen, write a note and mail it. And what you write your note on can make a difference.

As an artist, my work often reflects ideas and questions posted on this blog. (Look at me now…giving up my privacy!) But I am a little less open when it comes to how I write my private notes and letters. The importance of mailing written notes is but one of several reasons I created StickyPhilosopher.com and the imaginary character named “The Sticky Philosopher.” (And to give up the last bits of my privacy… I admit to enjoying directing this odd imaginary character around the digital world).

Your loss of privacy doesn’t feel as bad once we accept that “Big Data Loves You”…. And guess what? You can write a note on the back of this bumper sticker art card and mail it. I give an envelope with each order. The contents of your note will only be seen by eyes that are important to you.